Sliding door



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S. PALMER.

SLIDING DOOR. No. 354,576. Patented; Dec. 21; 1886.

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(ModeL) S. PALMER.

SLIDING DOOR. No. 354,576. Patented Dec. 21,1886.

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UNITED STATES PAT NT OFFICE.

STEPHEN PALMER, OF LANSINGBURG, NEW YORK.

SLIDING DOOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 354,576, dated December21, 1886.

Application filed March 1, 1886. Serial No. 103,636. (Model.)

T 0 M6 whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, Srnrnnn PALMER, a resident of Lansingburg, in thecounty of Bensselaer and State of New York, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Sliding Doors; and I do hereby declare thatthe following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention,that will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains tomake and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part ofthis specification.

Similar letters refer to similar parts in the several figures therein.

My invention relates to improvements in sliding doors havingmortiseshcaves projecting from their bottom edges and adapted to run ona floor-track.

It is well known to builders that great difficulty is experienced inadjusting sliding doors to avertical position upon a floor-track. Itfrequently happens, also, that if properly adjusted in the firstinstance they will not remain so.

As the height of the door is usually greatly in excess of its width, aslight disturbance of the track, due to the settling of the floor orshrinkage of the various parts,will cause the doors to tip toward eachother, so that their upper ends will strike each other before the lowerends can be closed, or if they tip in the opposite direction the lowerends will meet before the upper ends are closed.

When the adjustment of the doors depends wholly upon the relative depthof the mortises in the bottom edges of the doors which receive thesheaves, it necessitates repeated trials and changes to secure perfectadjustment in the first instance, as well as readjustment in case ofvariations, due to the settling of floors or other causes.

As the doors must be set up for trial and taken down for alteration,much time and labor are consumed in the operation; and one of theobjects of my invention is to provide a means of easy and readyadjustment of the doors upon their sheaves.

Another object is to strengthen the doors by causing their weight toexert a tendency to draw the stile up to the lower rail. As is well.known to builders, the doors are supported by two sheaves located in thebottom edge or rail of the door as near the vertical edges or stiles aspossible, to afford the longest possible base of support for the door.in cutting the sheavemortises in the lower rail of the door and near theends its tenons which enter the stiles are necessarily weakened it thesheaves are located near the vertical edges of the door.

By causing the weight of the door to draw the stile up to the rail, I amable to locate the sheaves nearer the vertical edge of the door, andlengthen the base of support afforded the door by the sheaves andwithout increasing the width of the sheave and mortise, which wouldotherwise weaken thedoor.

My invention consists of the novel construction and combination of partshereinafter m ore fully described, and pointed out in the claims.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a side elevation of the lower portion of adoor, partly broken away at one corner to show the inclosed sheave. Fig.2 is an elevation of the vertical edge of the door with covering-plateremoved. Fig. 3 is a front end elevation of a sheave detached. Fig. 4 isa rear end elevation of same. Fig. 5 is a view in perspective of aninclined slideway. Fig. 6 is a side elevation of sheave removed from itsmortise in the door.

The door Dis provided with a mortise, 12:, opening out at the lower edgeof the door, as shown in Fig. land by dotted lines in Fig. 2, adapted toreceive the sheave S. The sheave made in the usual manner,with asupporting track wheel, A, is provided at its ends with the slides B B,and at one end with a slot, b, adapted to receive the bolt a, as will behereinafter more fully explained.

The mortise m is provided with ledges adapted to receive and seat theinclined slideways W WV, which may be secured thereon by screws, asshown.

It will. be seen in Figl that the mortise is somewhat longer than thesheave, which permits the sheave to slide longitudinally therein. Anopening is also provided in the vertical edge of the door, extendingthrough the stile into the mortise. The mouth of this opening 6 issomewhat enlarged, to afford room for operating the nut d upon thethreaded end of bolt (1, extending through the smaller open ing, f, andterminating in ahead, I). The bolt is adapted to rest within the slot 1)in the sheave-case, the bolthead bearing upon the inner side of theslot-shoulders. The opening fbeing somewhat smaller in diameter thanopening 6, shoulders are formed at their junction, adapted to supportthe washern, rounded on the nut side to permit of a vertical movement ofthe bolt-head.

The operation ofthe device is as follows: If it is found upon trial thatone corner of the door is too highfor example, the left-hand corner, asviewed in Fig. 1, wherein the device is shown at its highest limit ofadj ustment-- it is only necessary to remove plate P and through openinge unscrew nut d, where upon the weight of the door, acting through theslideways W W, causes the sheave-case to slide toward the lower cornerof the door, traveling longitudinally of the elongated mortise, wherebythe slideways \V WV, which support the door, find a bearing in a lowerplane upon the slides B B, the lowest adjustment being limited only bythe length of the bolt and slideways and theelongation of the mortise.To raise the door-corner from a lower to a higher plane, it is onlynecessary to remove the plate and reverse the operation by turning thenut onto the bolt and drawing the slides against and along theslideways, which lifts them and the supported door-corner to a higherplane. I am thus able to quickly set up and properly adjust a new door,and to readjust the same when required without removing the door or thesheave from the supporting-track T:

By employing my improved device much less skill and care are required inattaching sheaves to doors, as it is not necessary to make the mortiseof any exact depth. An elongated mortise being necessary for theadjusting movements of the sheave-case and the degree of elongationbeing unimportant, provided sufficient room is afforded for thelongitudinal movement of the case, the labor and skill re quired infitting doors with sheaves are materially reduced. It willbe observed,also, that the weight of the door, acting through the slides andslideways, one of which is secured to the rail F, induces a continuoustension upon the bolt a, and through the bolt and its nut upon the stileE, which tends to draw and keep the stile and rail in their properpositions. The slides may, one or both, have a longitudinal slot, 0, toreceive the projecting screws t, as shown in Fig. 4., whereby thescrew-head supports the sheave in its mortise should the door be liftedfrom the floor, and prevents the sheave from falling out.

WVhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A door provided with a longitudinallyelongated mortise having aslideway at each end, in combination with an adjustable Inortise-sheaveprovided at each end with an inclined end slide movable longitudinallyon saidslideways, and means, substantially as described, for adjustingsaid sheave, as and for the purposes set forth.

2. The door D, provided with a sheave-mortise, m, and slideways W WV, incombination with sheave S, provided with inclined slotted slidesB B,screws i, and threaded bolt a and nut d, substantially as described,'andfor the purposes set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 27th day ofFebruary, 1886.

STEPHEN PALMER.

Witnesses:

GEO. A. MOSHER, W. H. HoLLIsTER, Jr.

